There’s a famous meme on social media known as “Food At Home” that resonates with anyone who grew up in a middle class household. The child asks to stop for food on the way home, and the mother, being frugal or just fed up with the ceaseless demands of parenting, assures the child “we have food at home.” The punchline is always a photo of some food that appears wholly unfit for consumption, let alone for a growing child.
This is the meme that comes to mind when hearing a story from the Chicago Tribune of migrant families fleeing Chicago back to a better life … in Venezuela.
Me: Mom can we go to Chicago?
Mom: We have socialism at home.
These migrants made the difficult choice to avoid the “food at home,” and instead devoted time and energy to getting their children the meal they deserve. The sad irony comes from the realization they would have been much better off dining in. (RELATED: Venezuelan Migrants Become Victims Of Chicago’s Rampant Crime)
@igreenscreenthings I want the voices in my head to stop. 👀 New template out now! #growingup #growinguppoor #broke #family #relatable #funny #meme #lol #fyp #CapCut ♬ Cat hitting brick with racket – I Green Screen Things
Peeling away the absurdity, it is quite disheartening a once-great American city now has less to offer a hopeful immigrant family than the dystopian hellhole they escaped from. The Chicago Tribune spoke to Michael Castejon, a 39-year-old Venezuelan who brought his family across the southern border just five months ago in search of a better life — but the troubles soon piled up. At first renting an apartment through a city voucher program, the family found themselves sleeping on the floors of shelters and police stations after it ran out. Despite coming in search of a better education for his daughter, he could not find a school to enroll her in. Waiting indefinitely on a work permit that may never arrive, Castejon decided to pack up his family and return home. “There’s nothing here for us,” he told the Chicago Tribune.
Castejon made the arduous journey under the impression the American Dream was alive and well. He heard from other migrants the treacherous terrain and the indignity of begging would all be worth it once they made it to America. Yet even compared to the “extreme poverty” and “authoritarian regime” they faced in Venezuela, the journey had not been worth it. “The American Dream doesn’t exist anymore,” he told the Chicago Tribune.
OUCH!
Chicago is so unpleasant migrants are fleeing BACK to Venezuela after being dumped in shelters and refused jobs, with 20,700 border crossers so-far bused to Dem-run ‘sanctuary city’https://t.co/J7xyw44nQy
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) November 14, 2023
“We didn’t know things would be this hard. I thought the process was faster,” he said of the bureaucratic hurdles stalling his job permit.
“How many more months of living in the streets will it take? No, no more. It’s better that I leave. At least I have my mother back home,” he continued, per the Chicago Tribune. “We just want to be home. If we’re going to be sleeping in the streets here, we’d rather be sleeping in the streets over there.”
Castejon’s experience is by no means isolated. Since August 2022, more than 20,000 migrants have been transported to Chicago under the direction of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, per the Chicago Tribune. And why shouldn’t they? Chicago has proudly declared itself a “sanctuary city,” dedicated to flouting federal immigration laws and essentially protecting even those migrants accused of violent crime. Yet with the city’s resources under strain, and city, state and federal agencies all looking to each other to pick up the slack, the continuation of sanctuary status is nearing its breaking point.
The sanctuary debate now unfolding highlights what happens when utopian dreams crash into cold, hard reality. Virtue signaling your commitment to diversity and inclusion is all fun and games, as long as someone else picks up the bill. But now that it’s cutting into resources Chicago has promised its already-struggling residents — particularly in the city’s majority black South Side — everyone remembers economics is a zero-sum game. Local leaders are not happy $40 million of state and city funds have gone to housing the never-ending swell of migrants, rather than their own communities who suffer under rampant street crime and a self-indulgent elite. (RELATED: ‘We Said No!’: Chicago Residents Reject Housing More Illegal Migrants)
What’s clear is Chicago has done this to itself. The same ideas that destroyed Venezuela are now wreaking havoc on Chicago. Hugo Chavez rose to power in 1998 on a socialist platform, promising political and economic equality. Instead, he delivered rampant corruption and extreme economic mismanagement. Those at the top do just fine as the rest of the population suffers under brutal repression and material scarcity. Yet the Democratic Socialists of America still stand in solidarity with the Venezuelan regime today. If the left has its way, every city in America will soon become just like Venezuela.
As Chicago itself descends into a two-tiered society, with corrupt bureaucrats living well while the masses grow poorer and less safe, migrants like Castejon are seeing the warning signs. They’d rather have the socialism at home.